You have to have Escrow to sell on Ebay now ?

So I just sold my phone on Ebay and I guess there are some new rules about collecting money on it. Of course they dont tell you this before.

Of course if you buy their overpriced labels and ship same day to the buyer then it speeds this up but even doing all of that they are holding the funds until May 22nd ... Are you kidding me ?

While you establish your selling track record, access to funds from buyer payments may be delayed to promote successful fulfillment. As soon as you meet all of the following criteria, payments from your buyers will generally be available immediately:

It's been more than 90 days since your first successful sale;
You've had more than 25 sales transactions; and
You've had more than $250 in total sales.

Top Answers

I remember hearing a scam about Ebay and an escrow account.. but now it's required? Is this if you use paypal, or some other way of receiving your money? It would be great to get more information on this. I haven't used ebay in a long time and I can never trust the accuracy of a google search.

Do you, or does anyone else, have any information on this? I haven't been on ebay in quite a while, but am thinking about selling some stuff to help with some spring cleaning I've been avoiding.

Oh and while I contend most Ebay rule changes suck for the average or loyal seller and only serve to protect the more saturated buyer population, what problem do you have with their labels? Once I gave them a shot, I've found them to be cheaper than the post office and include free tracking. You can also compare rates easier than going to the post office. The postal employee almost never tells you that parcel post is an option. I just print on paper, cut it out, and tape it to the package and even if you have to take it to the actual post office for drop-off they let you leave it on the counter insteadof standing in line.

To answer the question in the title: no. Escrow is a very bad idea, and any time a buyer (or seller) suggests paying by escrow, Western Union, or any nonstandard payment method, there's a very strong chance they're scamming you. Just say no to escrow.

To answer the situation regarding PayPal holds, the way I understand it is for new sellers attempting to sell certain very high-risk items, like cel phones, ipods, tablet PCs, and so on PayPal will hold the money for a certain period of time to make sure the customer actually gets the item as opposed to, say, a box with a rock in it. I don't necessarily agree with it, but it at least potentially cuts down on fraudulent transactions.

Sort By:

I remember hearing a scam about Ebay and an escrow account.. but now it's required? Is this if you use paypal, or some other way of receiving your money? It would be great to get more information on this. I haven't used ebay in a long time and I can never trust the accuracy of a google search.

Do you, or does anyone else, have any information on this? I haven't been on ebay in quite a while, but am thinking about selling some stuff to help with some spring cleaning I've been avoiding.

I used paypal and this is still the rules. I even called to complain ... this is quote a recent change. They said it will free up as soon as the item is delivered to the customer. Or if the tracking says its 2 days delivered and it still hasnt freed up then I can call. I wonder if doing trackable shipping flags that. Cause if you didnt do shipping with tracking how they gonna know ?

To answer the question in the title: no. Escrow is a very bad idea, and any time a buyer (or seller) suggests paying by escrow, Western Union, or any nonstandard payment method, there's a very strong chance they're scamming you. Just say no to escrow.

To answer the situation regarding PayPal holds, the way I understand it is for new sellers attempting to sell certain very high-risk items, like cel phones, ipods, tablet PCs, and so on PayPal will hold the money for a certain period of time to make sure the customer actually gets the item as opposed to, say, a box with a rock in it. I don't necessarily agree with it, but it at least potentially cuts down on fraudulent transactions.

Im on bored with that but given the fact I have had an account for 5 years with no complaints or even negative feedback they could have at least done me the favor of giving me the heads up. Alas the bank doesnt take the excuse of ebay has my money on hold ....

It is unfortunate that eBay has gotten adversarial with its sellers. They have also raised their pricing (in an effort to compete with Amazon) to unprofitable heights, to where my affiliates can no longer turn a profit.

I was emailed about this twice. I sold several items and they held the money, just like with you. However, if you purchase delivery confirmation (as you should be when selling on eBay) and input that number into the transaction, they will release the money as soon as that confirmation number shows that the item has been delivered. Well that or the buyer leaves positive feedback. So there's 3 ways to get your money. Confirmation of delivery, positive feedback left, or waiting out the time.

However after selling 4-5 items under this new procedure, I was sent an email telling me that this hold has now been removed from my account and that my money will now be available instantly. Go figure. eBayer since 02 with ~380 100% positive feedback. :shrug:

Don't even get me started. Been sporadically selling collectable items on Ebay for over 10 years and have hated every new rule they impliment to change their website from a flea market to an Amazon marketplace. Guess what Ebay, you're not Amazon and never will be unless you bifurcate your website in to two mediums if that's what they want to achieve.

Oh and while I contend most Ebay rule changes suck for the average or loyal seller and only serve to protect the more saturated buyer population, what problem do you have with their labels? Once I gave them a shot, I've found them to be cheaper than the post office and include free tracking. You can also compare rates easier than going to the post office. The postal employee almost never tells you that parcel post is an option. I just print on paper, cut it out, and tape it to the package and even if you have to take it to the actual post office for drop-off they let you leave it on the counter insteadof standing in line.

Woot.com is operated by Woot Services LLC.
Products on Woot.com are sold by Woot, Inc., other than items on Wine.Woot which are sold by the seller specified on the product detail page.
Product narratives are for entertainment purposes and frequently employ
literary point of view;
the narratives do not express Woot's editorial opinion.
Aside from literary abuse, your use of this site also subjects you to Woot's
terms of use
and
privacy policy.
Woot may designate a user comment as a Quality Post, but that doesn't mean we agree with or guarantee anything said or linked to in that post.

Not a farewell, just a forced redirect.

It's true, Local.Woot is no longer, but please don't despair.

Never-ending savings are still to be found on Deals.Woot each and every day, so come on in. Don't think of it as a time for tears. Think of it as a way to bring us all closer together under one roof.

Sorry

This is only for people who have bought woots

We restrict voting to users who have purchased something from one of the other Woot stores. It's not just because we want your money (which we do) - it's the best way to be sure all the votes are coming from real people and not spam-bots or phony accounts. The best way we can think of, anyway. For now.

You can always get voting rights by buying something from one of Woot's other sites:

Purchases through Deals.Woot don't count, because in that case you're not buying anything from us. And we don't have your account information for those purchases.

If you think you've bought something from Woot before and still can't vote, make sure you're logged in with the same account you used to buy from us.

Geez, why so negative?

You have to vote up more before you can vote down.

Don't get us wrong. Negativity has its place. And downvotes are just as essential as upvotes when it comes to making Deals.Woot a useful place to find deals.

But when your votes lean so heavily toward the dark side, we have to wonder. Go vote up a few things. Accentuate the positive for a little while. It'll do you some good, and it'll do the site some good, too. Then you can get back to dealing out the smackdowns, OK?

Too late, we all heard you!

Hmm... you're wanting to take your vote back?

Well, that's a bit tricky. See, we do a lot of stuff with your vote, using it to work out the popularity of what you voted for, compare that to all the other things voted on, tally up our leaderboard, work out your reputation. Someday we'll do a little cartoon showing just how hard your vote is working.

Anyway, taking votes back messes all that up, so we give you five minutes, in case you just mis-clicked. After that we've got to say no take-backs. Luckily, votes are free, so feel free to throw them around left and right wherever you see fit.